Cherry on Top

These aren’t your mom’s maraschino cherries, Orbiters. These home-crafted beauties epitomize everything we love about maraschino cherries—that sweet, intense cherry flavor, succulent texture, and vivid red color—but don’t rely on unpronounceable preservatives, artificial flavors, or red dye. These babies are the REAL DEAL and a PERFECT way to use this year’s harvest. Whether you’re popping them onto ice cream of stirring them into a cocktail, these special cherries will elevate everything they touch with a sweet taste of summer. 

Sour or Sweet Any kind of cherry will work for our recipe. Sour cherries are usually on smaller in size, while sweet cherries, such as Bing or Rainier cherries, are larger with denser flesh. If you don’t have a cherry tree or a local market to buy from, no worries—supermarket cherries, plentiful this time of year, are perfectly acceptable. The cherry tree in the FIO orchard is a Montmorency cherry and produces bright-red sour cherries with yellow flesh. This variety will give you that familiar bright red color, but we’ve also used dark red sour cherries which produced equally divine results. Just use what you’ve got!

Pitting Points Our absolute favorite tool for pitting cherries is a U-shape bobby pin (with a slight alteration!). Simply use a small pair of pliers to slightly bend the tip of the bobby pin and it’s ready to go. Stick the bent tip into the stem end of the cherry, then grab the pit and pull it out. Easy AND fast! 

Stick the bobby pin into the stem end of the cherry, hook it around the pit, then pull the pit out. SO EASY!

Preventing Browning If you’re using a lighter red cherry variety, the cherries may start to oxidize and turn light brown once you start pitting them. This won’t affect the flavor of your cherries, and most of the browning will wash away once you submerse them in the sugar solution, but you can prevent this by tossing them in a little ascorbic acid solution as you pit. Ascorbic acid, aka fruit protector or fruit preserver, is readily available in the canning section of many stores. Make a solution using ¼ tsp. ascorbic acid and ½ cup water. 

Firm ‘Em Up Ever notice how the texture of maraschino cherries is firm and bouncy, rather than soft like other preserved cherries? The secret to that signature succulent texture is calcium chloride, a natural firming agent often used in pickles and canned vegetables. Find it in near the other canning products in your supermarket.

DIY Maraschino Cherries

These cherries are perfect for stirring summer cocktails or topping ice cream or other desserts. While it's not essential for delicious results, calcium chloride, such as Ball brand Pickle Crisp, gives the cherries that familiar firm texture we associate with maraschino cherries. Look for it with the canning supplies at supermarkets or hardware stores, or order online. 

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Course Dessert, Drinks

Servings 1 quart

Ingredients

  

• 1 cup natural cane sugar or white sugar
• 1 cup water
• 4 cups sour cherries or sweet cherries
• 2 Tbsp. bourbon whiskey
• 1 Tbsp. lemon juice
• ¼ of a vanilla bean, spilt or ½ tsp. vanilla extract
• ¼ tsp. calcium chloride granules (optional)
• ⅛ tsp. almond extract
• 1 or 2 drops cherry wood bitters or other bitters (optional)

Instructions

 

• Pit cherries (you should have 2½ to 3 cups pitted cherries). In a small saucepan heat and stir sugar and water until sugar dissolves.
• In a medium saucepan combine sugar and water; bring to a boil, stirring until until sugar dissolves. Stir in bourbon, lemon juice, vanilla bean or extract, calcium chloride (if using), almond extract, and bitters (if using). Add cherries; cook and stir over low heat 1 minute. Transfer cherries and liquid to a jar. Cover and chill 2 to 5 days before serving. Store in the refrigerator up to 6 months.

Keyword cherries, cocktail cherries, homemade maraschino cherries, maraschino cherries, preserving